Star Wars: The Clone Wars' Sam Witwer on Bringing Darth Maul (Back) to Life and What to Expect in Season 5

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From Starkiller to Son to Maul, Witwer discusses his time with Star Wars.

By Eric Goldman

In the past few years, Sam Witwer has carved out quite a place for himself in Star Wars history. The Smallville and Being Human actor is a lifelong Star Wars fanatic, who first entered a galaxy far, far away (professionally that is) when he played Starkiller in The Force Unleashed and its sequel. On Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Witwer would then voice the character Son, one of three incredibly powerful physical manifestations of the Force. But Witwer is really stepping into iconic territory with his current Clone Wars role as Darth Maul.

Last month, at Star Wars Celebration VI, I sat down with Witwer to discuss what it’s been like playing Darth Maul, who is front and center in The Clone Wars: Season 5 premiere, “Revival,” which airs this Saturday on Cartoon Network in the show’s new 9:30am timeslot.

Sam Witwer with a familiarly dressed fan at Star Wars Celebration VI

IGN TV: I remember talking to you before The Force Unleashed came out on the set of Smallville, and you were so excited to be a part of Star Wars. Is it amazing for you to have had this continuing relationship with Star Wars that you couldn’t have foreseen at the time?

Sam Witwer: Yes. Yes, it is. Because the assumption is that it won’t continue, right? That’s the safe assumption. [The Clone Wars' Supervising Director] Dave Filoni was generous enough to hire me and [The Force Unleashed's] Adrienne Wilkinson for the Mortis Trilogy, where he wanted me to play the Son. I think we just liked working together and geeking out about the stuff and coming up with interesting ideas that might behoove the episode and make fans feel taken care of. From that grew the Darth Maul stuff. It’s interesting - Lucasfilm has been very, very good to me. The fact that I can visit their working facilities and see what they’re working on whenever I want is just such a fun thing, because I’m such a huge fan. I really enjoy checking in on this stuff. So yeah, it’s been this ongoing relationship, and my security clearance continues to get just a little bit higher every year, and I’m really grateful for that.

IGN: You talked at the Season 5 premiere about when you got the call from Dave about playing Darth Maul. Being the Star Wars fan you are and knowing that character, what was going through your head when Dave asked you about it?

Witwer: I couldn’t actually conceive of what the hell was actually going on because this is a big deal and I also was aware of the fact that this was going to be a controversial decision. It’s the same thing, for example, with Doomsday. I kinda knew, we’re talking about Superman fans, and this is a dangerous area to go into. It’s sort of the same thing with Darth Maul. You enjoy those opportunities so long as there is a chance for success, so long as there’s a chance to emerge on the other side unscathed. I trust Dave and the team, so at that point I just felt like, “Okay, I just hope that I can do my job and make this work.”

IGN: What was it like when you saw their interpretation and the idea that he would come back, especially in that first episode, pretty mentally out there?

Witwer: Yeah, on that original phone call, he told me the state he was going to be in, he told me about the legs and how Maul had slowly gone insane and the Dark Side of the Force -- this garbage he’d been gathering and forming these shapes of the legs underneath him. So I had a lot to think about. He gave me that time to let me think about it so that I was ready by the time that I got those scripts to start picking it apart in more detail. And I thought it was the right move. I heard it and was immediately like, “Yeah, you have to.” You can’t just have him come back… For example, there’s a wonderful Star Wars “What if” comic where he hunts down Obi-Wan, and he’s survived -- and he has the chicken legs -- and that’s cool. That’s really cool, and it’s short and brief. For its purposes, it’s really wonderful. But when it comes to bringing him back in a film-like medium or CG, you do actually have to spend time on the cost of getting cut in half. You can’t just have him come back and say, “Hey, boys. Remember me?” And suddenly, he’s immediately fighting -- it’s just terrible storytelling if you’re going to do it that way. Having said that, I’m not saying the comic book was terrible; it was a little “What if” thing and that was the scope of what they were doing. What we’re doing, the scope is much larger. He has a lot more to say, perhaps. Basically, I appreciated that there was a process for getting this character back on his feet, because there has to be. Through that process, we get the wonderful opportunity to stare the Dark Side in the face. It’s not just red lightsabers and cool lines and black leather. It’s despair and it’s anger and it’s insanity -- that’s what the Dark Side is. So we’re like, “Yeah, let’s show the audience that.” And I am just grateful that the audience seems to have embraced it.

Exit Theatre Mode

IGN: As you mentioned at the premiere, Darth Maul’s one of those characters like Boba Fett who made such an impact with relatively small screen time. This interpretation is really the first time we’re going to get to know him on an ongoing basis, especially through the relationship between him and Savage. Has it been interesting for you to chart that and go a little deeper into who this guy is and what he’s given of himself to become this powerful?

Witwer: If you’re going to bring this character back, you must learn more about him. Furthermore, you have to ask yourself some questions. What’s credible? Well, if there are only two Sith and if Sidious is looking for or training an apprentice, well that guy’s got to be great at a lot of things. He can’t just be a good sword fighter. That’s useless, ultimately -- he’s not good for much. He’s got to be smart, he’s got to be savvy, cunning and strategically and tactically minded. He’s got to have all those things, and he has to also have the ability to be diplomatic when he needs to be. He’s got to be the full package, and this is why Sidious goes through so many apprentices throughout these movies and this TV show; he’s looking for the ultimate, which eventually ends up being Darth Vader, at least for a while.

IGN: And even there, he’s willing to trade up.

Witwer: That’s the thing, the ultimate apprentice -- the one that he’s really looking for -- is Luke Skywalker, and ironically enough, that’s the one that does him in by not becoming his apprentice. But that’s the whole thing. The Emperor is constantly looking for the replacement. And Darth Maul perhaps invents in the Emperor’s mind this idea that you can recycle these guys, that if you think they’re killed, maybe they’re not. Maybe there’s something more you can do with them. He certainly recycles Anakin when he’s been burned down, and it’s very possible that this whole thing with Darth Maul puts those ideas in his head. It’s like, “Oh, perhaps I underestimated these people. Maybe you can use them for something even after they’ve been disfigured.”

Continue to Page 2 as Witwer discusses Maul's current state of mind, his relationship with Savage Opress and what it's like to be typecast as uber-powerful badasses.